The Kubernetes Cost Workbook
Kubernetes hides cost behind shared clusters and overprovisioned requests, so the bill rarely matches the value delivered. This workbook is a buyer side, step by step method for making container spend visible, right sizing requests, and packing nodes without risking reliability.
Native advisors and provider bills stop at the node. They cannot see that a node is half idle because every pod reserved twice the CPU it needs. Closing that gap requires usage data at the pod level mapped back to requests, then a disciplined loop of calibration, packing, and autoscaler tuning. The workbook turns that loop into a checklist your platform team can run.
Tell us where to send it. Work email only. You will be reading it in seconds.
- The request to usage gap: how to measure the difference between what pods reserve and what they use, the single largest source of Kubernetes waste.
- Bin packing and node strategy across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI managed Kubernetes, including instance family choice and the role of Spot and flexible compute shapes.
- Cost allocation for shared clusters: namespace, label, and workload showback so each team sees its real cost.
- Autoscaling that saves: tuning horizontal, vertical, and cluster autoscalers so they scale down as aggressively as they scale up.
- Worked tables showing a typical 30 to 50 percent reduction in cluster cost from request calibration and packing, verified against billing data and anonymized.
Put a defensible number on your cloud spend.
No provider in the room, no published price list. Tell us your footprint and we will scope the savings against your billing data.